'....Ms Eldridge, from south London, came to India at the end of July for a three-month internship with Mahila Swaraj Abhiyan, an NGO in the western state where she is working on a project designed to help empower women. She says she was assaulted by a plumber employed by the organisation who had been called to repair her shower when she was alone in her apartment.

After making a complaint to the police, a case was heard earlier this week where charges of molestation were put against the plumber. Ms Eldridge said the government appointed her a lawyer but no translator. She said she considered the questioning she underwent by defence lawyer Sanjay Prajapati to have been a “second assault”.

“People have some sort of idea that sexual assaults only happen to certain sort of women; it can happen to anyone, regardless of who you are or how many sexual partners you’ve had,” she continued. “To question my character in court was not only entirely irrelevant but totally humiliating.”......'

LINK TO WIDER ACTION

In the fight to bring Kaya justice we must seek to highlight the rights of Indian women; linking this case to social movements such as the Pink Chaddi campaign in India. We must see this as an opportunity for international feminist solidarity uniting with wider struggles across the globe, which demand the recognition that no woman is to blame for sexual assault and harassment; challenging the view that alcohol, promiscuity, and provocative clothing legitimise rape. This is a view promoted not only by the Indian legal system, but by courts in the UK, the US and by our very community. According to a London Student survey, 1/3 students still think a woman is to blame for rape if she has been drinking.

Rape is rape, no means no, and victims must be brought justice and support rather than receiving the criminalisation and humiliation that Kaya has experienced. The true criminals, the perpetrators of rape must be prosecuted, and condemned in every society. We must see this case as a warning and challenge the systematic subordination of women, control of female sexuality and objectification of the female body, that enshrines, normalises and normalises violence against women as acceptable social interaction.